Anthropologist Bennett Receives U of M's Highest Faculty Honor
For release: Mar. 25, 2003
For press information, contact Gabrielle Maxey

An internationally recognized researcher on alcohol- and drug-related problems has been named the recipient of the 2003 Board of Visitors Eminent Faculty Award at The University of Memphis. Dr. Linda A. Bennett, professor of anthropology, will receive the $20,000 award during the University's annual Faculty Convocation, set for 2 p.m. on Friday, March 28.

Bennett joined the U of M faculty in 1986. She served as chair of the U of M Anthropology Department from 1994 to 1998, when she became associate dean for graduate studies and research in the College of Arts and Sciences.

During 1992-93, she conducted a cross-cultural study of the diagnosis and classification of alcohol and drug use and abuse for the World Health Organization. She continues to work on analyzing the data and publishing the findings from that study.

From 1966 to 1969, Bennett was a member of the anthropology faculty at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. In 1974 she joined the Center for Family Research in the Department of Psychiatry at George Washington University Medical Center, where she launched a 12-year study of alcoholism in American families.

Bennett has also done fieldwork on alcoholism in the former Yugoslavia. She has written several books that are highly regarded in her field, including The American Experience with Alcohol and The Alcoholic Family, as well as numerous journal articles and book chapters.

Bennett serves as immediate past president of the Society for Applied Anthropology. She initiated the Consortium of Practicing and Applied Anthropology Programs in 2000 and is chair of its steering committee.

Dr. Barbara Ellen Smith wrote, in her nomination of Bennett, "While pursuing a highly productive international research agenda, Dr. Bennett also established herself as a valued teacher, adviser and mentor to students in the University's anthropology program. Rigorous in her expectations, Dr. Bennett also became known for her wide range of expertise, engaging teaching, and responsiveness to individual students' questions and needs."

Bennett earned her bachelor's degree in social sciences from Clarion State College in Clarion, Pa., her master's degree in anthropology from Indiana University in Bloomington, and her doctorate in anthropology from American University in Washington, D.C.

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